Wednesday, October 25, 2006

I'm back! (=^_^=)old already... my face is all wrinkled because didn't bring moisturizer for the trip.Can't wait to upload those photos taken in Bangkok......(My poor exhausted Li-ion battery is taking so long to charged up.... in ICU now...)Imagine... I forced it to take more photos for me yesterday evening when I was at the scenic Wat Arun... Ahh... then the lense got not enough power to shrink back... had to left it outside till I got back to hotel and plugged in the charger...)It didn't stay on until I walked to the back of Wat Arun to see the famous sun set view....So breathtakingly beautiful.... like a picture of heaven...I was with my colleagues, took Air Asia and stayed at Silom Trinity Hotel (3*) for 4D3N... I love it so much there... So many leng chai leng lui... wah... (Not those PatPong professionals in skimpy clothes but I mean those young OL & guys in shirts... metrosexual... hmmm... gaya... unggul... 流口水)

First day(22 Oct 2006)

Arrived at Suwarnabhumi Airport. It was only their 3rd week operation on International flights...Taksim's project. (Hmm... the world's current largest single building?...big...organised...not that crowded... the floor is slippery...)Took a cab to Silom Trinity Hotel...passengers have to pay for highway toll(OMG, this hotel name didn't appear to be on the list of the taxi driver's hotel list...neither the printed list nor the additional hand written page!! Wondered if he could send us to the correct place, lucky that we brought the internet print out of the hotel location.) - B$46511am, the rooms were not yet ready... the check out time was 12 noon.My boss's husband was having fever... so we walked to the Bangkok Christian Hospital 10 minutes away from hotel.(Not bad, when did you have a chance to visit local hospital in your vacation trip?)I found that their safety precautions in the hospital are very good... They have security guards to look after the walkway, open and closing the gates when there is vehicle crossing the walkway in between different blocks of the hospital building.After checked in, off to Chatuchat for shopping!!! Just love it!Ha.. sampai kat sana, makan dulu! Here we tasted the first round of Thai food. (Tom Yam Kung, Fried chicken is famous and easily found every where, Fried morning glory --> kangkung rupanya, roasted pork, fried squid, omelette... comment: Food was so so... I had coke from glass bottle, taste different... tak ada umph!)By the time we gathered at 5pm at the entrance, I already got some nice fancy earings...averagely B$2 /pair, then a skirt, a dress, a singlet, hmm... too many things... really have to budget spending... Took a cab back to hotel, shower and hunt for dinner.We went to SomBoon Restaurant, the locals' famous restaurant...Had a special curry crab but not really that nice...After dinner? Patpong!! Maybe it was still early, we only walked around the night bazaar, went in to FoodLand to get some drinks... Oooh.. I got a JAI 1.5L drinking water in a ginnie bottle... brought it back to M'sia for display. :) You can get sexy clothes from the night bazaar...Just 5 minutes away, we are back to Silom, got a 6L Nestle drinking water from 7-Eleven beside Bangkok Bank. Only B$39. Enough of water supply for the whole trip.Got myself a Fanta orange in 330ml pet bottle.Someone reminded us it was the first day of Lunar month, the Buddhist have to do prayer.So we took shower and went out again at 9.30pm to Siam Square which is famous area for praying 4 faced Buddha. (Interesing... they were located at the junctions and surrounded with high class shopping malls and World Trace Centre.) 六人一辆的士,二十六岁的我坐在四十六岁auntie的大腿啊!Night bazaar is along side the pedestrian streets.There was a stage in front of WTC with artistes performances... I did my shopping while listening to life band music... good leisure eh... Got some book marks & a hairband...

At 11pm, we had supper at the hotel cafe, tried their char koay teow & char wantan noodles. Nice.

Second Day (23 Oct 2006)

It was Chulalongkorn Day (23 Oct) during my 2nd day there.... only found out when we bought our 1 day pass for sky train (B$120) and read it from the tourist map provided by the ticket counter. It was a quiet Monday... for it being a Thai National holiday. Couldn't remember the first stop from the Sky Train but there was Chao Phraya river and boats under the bridge... walked out from the station, we passed by a morning market... then some wholesale souvenir shop. I got some deco lanterns.Then we went into Tops Supermarket. They open at 9.30am. Market visit... :P 工作狂Then we proceed to Kao Shan... famous for silver wholesaler... bought some silver earings too.Had phat tai (fried noodle), fried rice & very nice pineapples at the hawker stalls, got a pair of sunspect after that.Next, we took a taxi to MBK at Siam Square. This shopping centre is located beside the National Stadium. At the concourse area, they were having a Tatoo Festival. All dressed in black and waited for their Tatoo marathon, there were exhibition on Tatoo tool kits, the photos, the patterns & Harley bikes. Saw some punk kids there. Got a picture of a dog, waiting to see the show at MBK main enterance. I got a number of picture of friendly dogs in Bangkok...So, if I was in MBK, what else?! Shopping I went!! Handbags, sunglasses...and my first Wacoal. (hehehe...)After 2hrs of shopping... I tried Samurai Pork Burger at McD. :)(Ooohh..... the pork is soft and almost same taste like the pork baguette in Siem Reap, the bun is like usual, soft and easy to chew. The fries taste like rice more than potatoes... maybe it was too thinly cut and made the texture too dry. Ofcourse, their chilli sauce are different from Msian gsf brand...)Took the sky train back to Chong Nonsi and had a walk back to hotel.At night, we had dinner at the restaurant near Sala Deang sky train station. Hmm... again, the barbeque crab was not up to our satisfaction. It was too dry and tasteless...I like the green muscles, fried paku, barbeque squid & tom yam kung. They serve guava with the dip mixture (salt+sugar+pepper+cili padi). Refreshing! We pointed at the crab and wanted to ask the restaurant owner whether the crab are fresh and alive... The lady doesn't speak English, and replied, "Poom!!! Poom!!! Poom!!! Poom!!!" (Mana kami faham.... hahhahhaha laughed all the way back to hotel.)We were told that it is rainy season in Bangkok and saw some photos of flood from The Star... lucky it only rained on Monday night after dinner... Cooling... after a hot afternoon...After dinner, we walked around the shops nearby hotel. Do market visit again in the supermarket. 死性不改,哈哈. After all, there were many shops that was closed, because it is a public holiday, even the massage & beauty parlour at the Trinity Mall.

Third Day (24 Oct 2006)

Finally, we met their normal working day. Did shopping at their local market, something like our pasar pagi... bought some socks to wear with my sport shoes, 丝袜, rubber band and a Mickey pendant. :)

From Silom, walked to Patpong, haha.. nothing & quiet in the morning.

Went to Watson to get a Sofy. Ha... Made in Thailand. The cashier gave me a coupon with 15baht written... he explained the usage of it and I couldn't understand him but still nodded my head... not going to use it afterall. :P

After met up with the other girl & auntie, we decided to go Grand Palace with taxi. Hehehe...I wore the skirt that I bought from Chatuchat. Admission fee is B$250. This was the place I took the most photos... Has helped a lenglui tourist take photo with her black bf. A pleasure it was. :)

My colleague and I stood infront of the golden bell and took its photo for 30 minutes... don't know whether the reflection will give extra darkening effect even after I had applied SunPlay SPF130. :P Just watch and see.

After the temple, we saw changing guards at the Grand Palace. :) "Tik... Tak... Tik... Tak..." That was how their boots sounded. We took turns to line up behind the guards and took picture. :) Then made funny face behind the guard infront of palace. :D

Dehydrated (although I bought my 1.5L ginnie bottle with me and had refill drinking water at the temple) and hungry, we decided to walk across to the market opposite Grand Palace and hunt for food. Watermelon was the first thing I wanted. :D Then we had some vegetarian dishes that they sell during this 九皇爷season. Bitter gourd & mushroom soup, vegetarian fried chicken cubes that taste like kacang kuda, and a vegetarian otak-otak. :)

We then went to Wat Arun, across the bridge from Grand Palace in a taxi. Entrace for Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) is B$20. Worth it. Ichiban! It has some influence of Chinese culture, having statues like 关公, and using porcelain plates as flower deco for the pagoda's wall. Ooohh... just like country style lace. :) They had closed the levels above 1st stage, and we stood at the tower, looking at the view of Chao Phraya River. (You can imagine how beautiful it was, till my camera battery went flat.) :)

There were stalls selling souvenirs outside of Wat Arun. Ah...then we found two botak mat salleh were sitting at the river bank and faced the Wat Arun. We bought some cold drink and sat there too. Huuuuuu...... ini dia! Sun set at Wat Arun. Ha... Couldn't take picture... so had to look at it for 10 minutes... to keep it in my mind... a beautiful memory...

Finish at 5.30pm, we got back to hotel at 6.30pm. The guys didn't join us for tourist spot. They went shopping instead during the afternoon.

At 7.30pm, we went for dinner, at the same "Poom.. Poom..." restaurant near Sala Deang station. This time we had fried chicken wings.. (highly recommended), barbeque prawn (shouldn't be missed!), more fried paku, tom yam kung, fried squid with soy sauce, steamed siakap(the only fish I had in Bangkok), fried black pepper sauce ostrich(they have very nice black pepper sauce). Hmm.. Chang beer & chalong to drink. :) B$1710 for 6 person. Worth it.

We bought some mangoes from the mobile vendor after our dinner.

We took a taxi to Suan Lom Night Bazaar from hotel. Only B$40 with meter taxi. Lucky that we got down from the taxi that wanted to charge us B$100.

Big Wheel! That was the first thing that caught our attention. Uncle boss & auntie didn't want to get on it. The 4 of us each pay B$100 for 6 rounds. Took some picture but my camera didn't work well for night view because of the moving wheel. :P

There were singers on stage at the eateries... The boy band dance quite well. Took a short video.Shopping again! I bought a matching purse for my handbag. Heheheh...

After that we went back to PatPong in 2 tuk tuk. Wow... they can really race... Sekelip mata sudah sampai. B$50 each tuk tuk.

Ha.... this time we got to see more... it was 10.30pm. Walking at the street, there will be many of them showing you a menu of services they have. "Ping Pong show" or was it "Pim Pom show"? "Banana Show? Open Coca-cola?" The will follow you and tell you the price. Can't even tell if those I saw were real women or transvestite. Then I saw there was one lane with the signage "Dream boys...."

We have auntie & uncle in our team, so the young man pointed at auntie and told them, "Mommy scold...". He pointed at uncle and said, "Daddy also scold." Uncle said, "Daddy won't scold, daddy will follow.". Hahahaha.

11.30pm, we were safe at the hotel. I slept late and everyone knew about it... How come? Because I shared the same room with auntie and she became my announcer. Hmm.... Everyone in the team knew how much I spent and what I bought...

Fourth Day: 25 Oct 2006

Arrived early at the airport at 8am, avoided the jam. We could only start to check in at 8.30am.

My luggage has increased its weight from 4kg to 9kg. :) Haha...

After we paid for airport tax (B$500 per head), we still have 30 minutes for tea and snack at Burger King. Hmm... the fries are not bad. They serves thai chilli sauce. :)

Lucky for us, the flight was not delayed...We went on board at 9.30am as scheduled. The plane stayed on 5 minutes longer in the air than the normal 2hr 5min because there was emergency caused by weather... Arrived safely at airport at 1.40pm.